prologue

IT WAS AFTER I ate King that everything started to go wrong in our entire family, as if someone had put an evil spell onto us, a hex – like a bad fairy godmother had said at my birth - 'When you are eleven you are going to be struck by a sorrow so big it will be like a lightning bolt. There will be grief like a sharp rock in your throat'.

"The countryside is so much scarier than the city.

It's all life and death here."

chapter 1

Silphidae – Necrophorus vespillo
The Burying Beetle has the curious habit of burying dead birds, mice, shrews, voles and other animals by digging the earth away beneath them. This accomplished, the beetle deposits her eggs upon the dead carcase, and when the larvae, or grubs, hatch they find an abundant food-supply near at hand. These insect-scavengers perform useful work, and it's largely because of their efforts that so few corpses of wild creatures are discovered. These carrion beetles also devour some of the decomposing flesh of the carcase, seeming to relish the bad odour that is given off. The Burying Beetle is rarely seen, unless close watch is kept over a dead rodent, bird, or other animal, and they seem to fly about on their scavenging expeditions in pairs, being attracted to the spot by scent. The commonest species is brownish black with bands and spots of orange-yellow.
British Insects by W. Percival Westall, FLS (The Abbey Nature Books)

chapter 2

THIS HOUSE HAS got really ancient Ladybird books with learn to read stories for kids where boys do butch activities with their fathers – like camping and building things and girls get to help the mother in the kitchen or knit a tea cosy. Can you believe it? It must have been terrible in the olden days, having to wear a skirt all the time and remembering to keep your knees together so you don't show your knickers. Mum says ‘They're a piece of Valuable Social History of Life since the Second World War.' (Ladybird books, not knickers. Though I expect they are too.)
‘Get the door, Gussie, I'm in the bath.'
She's always in the bath. Don't know what she does to herself in there. She always looks just the same as she did before she went in, except that her hair is wetter when she gets out and her face is shiny.
‘Hello, Postie.'
‘The name's Eugene.'
‘Eugene? I thought that was a girl's name.'
‘What sort of name 'ave you got then? Gussie? What's that short for – Angus?'
‘No, it isn't actually. It's short for Augusta.'
‘Augusta! Huh!'
‘Gussie, what are you doing being rude to the postman? He's come all this way down the cliff to deliver our letters and you're rude to him. He'll throw our mail over the cliff if we aren't careful.'
‘Nah, she's all right, she's all right. We're just getting to know each other.'
Mum is standing there in her dressing gown with a towel on her head. She has no shame.
‘You must keep very fit running up and down this hill every day,' says Mum, eyeing him up and down.
‘Training for the London Marathon,' said Eugene and ran back up the steps.
He delivered a Birthday card from Daddy – Sorry this is late, Babe, hope you liked the flowers – buy yourself a pretty dress . A dress? No way! Fifty pounds! Riches beyond my wildest dreams!
Mum says she'll take me to Dorothy Perkins tomorrow in Truro. Today I'm wearing the cool jeans and the sky-blue T-shirt Mum bought me for my birthday.
Summer sent me a card too, from Italy. At least she remembered. Mum says the Postal Service here is Lousy. Summer says she won't be coming to stay before the autumn term starts. And she promised me, the cow. She'd probably hate it anyway - no designer shops, no stars to bump into in the streets of St Ives. She'd hate this house, I know, it's not sophisticated enough for her taste. It's got odd dining chairs and odd crockery and holes in the wooden walls where draughts come through. She'd probably refuse to sleep on the sofa bed too. She can be a bit Princess and the Pea sometimes, Summer.

Buy The Burying Beetle online now from the secure Luath Press website: www.luath.co.uk/acatalog/The_Burying_Beetle.html

The Burying Beetle by Ann Kelley will be available from May 2005, priced £9.99, from all good bookshops or online from www.luath.co.uk.

ISBN: 1 84282 099 0 PBK